App promises clean water for kids in need when users simply ignore their phone

UNICEF's Tap Project app helps provide a day's worth of clean water to children in need for every ten minutes users refrain from touching their phone.

We’ve already seen how smartphones can be leveraged to aid global causes such as cancer research with Samsung’s Power Sleep app. Now UNICEF is challenging smartphone users to make a difference by ignoring their devices through the Tap Project app, which helps provide a day’s worth of clean water to children in need for every ten minutes users refrain from touching their phone.

Developed by creative agency Droga5, the app requires smartphone owners to navigate to the Tap Project minisite in order to take part. After tapping the Begin button, the site then uses the device’s accelerometer to detect if the phone is being left untouched. For each ten minutes users can spare checking their Facebook, the charity says that Giorgio Armani, which is sponsoring the project, will donate cash to help provide one day’s worth of clean water in areas where it’s a luxury. The idea is to get users to give up something fairly inconsequential for a short period of time to make a big difference to someone’s life elsewhere in the world.

Are there other ways to disrupt the way consumers use their smartphones to get them to think about or even participate in social causes?